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bbandeddie
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2018 12:06pm
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Has anyone installed an Xplornet LTE data system and measured power consumption?
I’m horrified by the data costs from Bell/Rogers for LTE based home internet. I may still have to go this route as Bell at least offers a sliding scale plan that ramps down costs for the off-months. We will only be at the cottage 7mon/year and then on the road in the RV for the winter.
I guess, that said, has anyone compared power consumption for the various mobile LTE internet solutions from the likes of Bell/Rogers? They have two systems, one is a portable device the size of a deck of cards, the other is more traditional modem/router in appearance (ZTE I believe).
Thanks!
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2018 02:12pm
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What kind of price are you seeing on Xplornet LTE? Bell is running me over a 100/mo. Even after turning down my netflix streaming rate.
I will say the power use (which I have not measured accurately. 5watts?) is much lower than the satellite. That was around 65wh. When you x 24 hrs. Yikes!
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Wilbour
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2018 03:52pm
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I plugged in my postal code for the cabin. They recommended
LTE-5/50
so LTE 5Mbps down, and 50 gig cap all for.... $60. ouch!
Guess you cannot compare this to Teksavvy Cable in the city but I guess 50 gig on LTE vs a phone plan of 5 gigs.....
Guess country folk download corn videos from the local Tim's?
I know, there's no such thing as a corn video. Just being a (fill in the blank) 
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Princelake
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2018 04:57pm
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I have xplornet at my house and its $109 for 100gigs a month. I'm not sure what the power consumption is. Would it help if I take a picture at the box? It might says amount of watts?
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bbandeddie
Member
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2018 05:57pm
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I wasn’t implying that Xplornet was inexpensive but that latest promo is offering 25Mbps and 200GB for $70 ($80/mon after 12mon) or 50/400 for $80 ($100/mon after 12mon). A darn sight cheaper than Bell -BUT the Bell will scale back to $10/mon for the months we aren’t there. If I can keep data low, Bell would be a lot cheaper. But that’s a big IF and a lot of discipline required.
But mostly, yeah, I’m concerned/interested in power consumption of the three options: Xplornet LTE, Bell modem-router, and Bell MiFi thingie.
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Princelake
Member
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# Posted: 29 Jul 2018 09:13pm
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Those promos only apply if your in range of certain towers. I called to get a promo and said I wasn't in range of the tower
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 30 Jul 2018 09:32am
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Bell is running me over 100/mo for 5/20. Sometimes I get 10 down and 5 up. This past few days its been more like 4/4.
If you go away you have to change to a different plan. They have 2. One is cheaper on data but a minimum of 60/mo. The other drops down to 10/mo if you're away but you can only use up to 10g / mo when you're back and its 85+tx.
They've been raising prices steadily.
I tried to use the 10/mo plan while traveling. They charged me 50. Added another 50 fee that they couldn't explain and then removed after I complained. But that took 1/2 hr of my life arguing with the rep. Ugh.
I was on Xplornet satellite. Slow. Charged me way more than the "special" contract. Never got my signing bonus gift. Etc.
But the new LTE plans do look better. Might be time to change.
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bbandeddie
Member
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# Posted: 31 Jul 2018 08:13pm
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Creeky, what device are you using with your Bell plan? Power consumption?
With Bell, I expect I’ll need a cell booster to get the promised speeds, often only 2 bars so a booster should easily get me full bars and better/full speed.
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Houska
Member
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2018 12:09am
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Not precisely an answer to your question, but in terms of LTE internet, we've solved our data costs issue (in Quebec) by getting not one but 2 Telus SIM cards on their tiered plan. Like someone mentioned above for Bell, the cost per SIM is $10/mo for no usage, and there's a weird set of tiers up to 10 Gig a month. Above 10 Gigs a month is when expensive overages kick in, and that's when we switch to our alternate SIM.
Bottom line is about 4-5 mos of the year our consumption is zero, another 4-5 months is a couple of Gig (2-10) and we use one card, and about 2-3 months it's 10-16 Gig and then we use both cards. The total cost is below Xplornet, and with a cell booster our bandwidth and latency are good.
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bbandeddie
Member
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# Posted: 9 Aug 2018 12:32pm
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Thanks Houska,
I check that out. The pricing tiers are asinine and frustrating.
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